Residents, businesses sue over 2009 pipeline explosion

Fifty Potter County residents and two businesses have sued Atmos Energy and a Colorado energy company, claiming they suffered personal injuries and incurred property damage from a 2009 gas pipeline explosion in Bushland.

The petition, filed on Friday, includes property owners in the vicinity of the Nov. 5, 2009, blast that sent a fireball about 700 feet in the air around midnight.

The petition, filed in the 320th District Court, does not detail the plaintiffs’ injuries or how much they are seeking in damages.

Lone Star Film & Video, 6423 S. Western St., and Bar 3 Homes, 2700 S. Blessen Road, also are listed in the petition.

The original petition claims two Delaware corporations — Kinder Morgan Inc. and El Paso Corp. — and Atmos Energy, which is based in Dallas County, were negligent.

El Paso Natural Gas Co., and parent company El Paso Corp., owned the gas pipeline at the time of the explosion, the petition said. Since then, Kinder Morgan purchased El Paso Corp. and is the current owner of the pipeline, according to the document.

The plaintiffs also allege Atmos Energy failed to safely operate the pipeline and claim it failed “to report a known danger,” the petition said.

“The lawsuit is completely without merit,” said Richard Wheatley, spokesman for El Paso Corp. “The company’s conduct in the Bushland community since the incident has been exemplary.”

Joe Hollier, a Kinder Morgan spokesman, said the company’s lawyers are working to get the energy company off the lawsuit.

“I don’t know why we’re included,” Hollier said.

Kinder Morgan has submitted an offer to purchase El Paso Corp., but both remain separate entities until a decision is finalized, which is expected to occur in 2012, Hollier said.

All other companies said they had no comment Tuesday.

The natural gas pipeline rupture occurred on the 24-inch pipeline from Dumas to Amarillo, which prompted about 200 people to evacuate and left a 15-foot deep crater, according to a report from the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration.

The explosion caused an initial blast followed by an “extended period of time of extensive tremors where the ground shook before the gas pipeline could be shut down or turned off,” the petition said.

The federal agency closed the case April 13 after “extensive testing” that did not determine a cause of the explosion, according to a letter sent to the Colorado company that owned the pipeline.

One Bushland family reached an agreement with El Paso Corp. in April for an undisclosed settlement that included periodic annuity payments and a medical trust.

Six days after the blast, the Torres family filed a lawsuit against the company.

Kevin Glasheen, the family’s attorney, said at the time that Agnieszka Torres and daughter Franczeska, then 17, both needed skin grafts.